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Is Glass A Liquid?

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Excited for the August 21 eclipse? Visit our Eclipse 2017 page to explore the science, history, and myths of the event. The Curiosity team will be viewing the eclipse alongside NASA in Carbondale, Illinois. Follow us on Facebook for live videos, trivia, and interviews on the big day.

You may have heard that glass is a liquid, and that it slowly, slowly flows, causing older windows to have thicker bases. But don't believe the myth! Those windows have their bigger bottoms simply due to the glass-making process of the time, which left some panes with non-uniform surfaces. (Also, many old glass items don't even exhibit this feature.) As an amorphous solid, glass has a structure that is more rigid and organized than that of a liquid, but less so than a pure solid like a crystal.